A large portion of the business of gambling casinos is provided by coin-operated machines, such as slot machines. In a single casino, the machines often produce as much as $25,000,000 in annual revenues. This creates a massive need for changing paper money into coin form on or near the gaming floor.
Usually, the first action by a patron entering the gaming facility is to approach a teller to exchange paper money for coinage. Coin change tellers are often found walking throughout the gaming floor or in teller cages in an area adjacent to the coin machines. Almost exclusively, change is given in the form of pre-counted, wrapped coin rolls of fixed denomination which are usually quarters with an equivalent count of $10.00 or 40 quarters to a roll.
This method of change dispensing is extremely labor intensive and inefficient. For example, because of the heavy weight of the coins, there is a limited amount that a walking teller can carry before having to return to a central location for additional coins. For this reason, centralized tellers at coin-dispensing windows are utilized. This, however, poses the problem of inaccessibility to the patrons who must leave the machine they are playing and walk some distance to receive their coins. This is extremely bothersome to the patrons who do not like to leave gaming devices in the middle of a gambling session. As a result, patrons often sit and wait at their machine for a walking teller to provide them change. This creates delay in using the machines which results in a decrease of revenue to the casino and inconvenience to the patrons.
Large bill-changing machines which dispense coins in roll form are used to supplement the centralized coin-dispensing teller. However, these offer no advantages except for a reduction in labor costs. Since space allocation is extremely crucial to casino revenues, every possible amount of floor area is devoted to the gaming machines. Therefore, there is no available floor space near the slot machines for a large roll-coin dispensing machine which would be more convenient for the slot machine players. Furthermore, even though this shortens the walking distance for a patron to receive additional coins, it still does not satisfy patrons who do not want to leave their position at the slot machine. Most gambling regulations prohibit the inclusion of a money-changing device within the gambling machine itself. The regulations require the money changing to be separate from the gambling machine.
There is, therefore, a need for efficient and convenient coin dispensing on the floor of the casino directly adjacent to a slot machine so that patrons may change paper money into coins without waiting or leaving their place. It is also important that no additional floor space be used.